Brazilian environmental legislation as tool to conserve marine ornamental fish

Legislation is considered an effective means to regulate the fishing and trade of marine ornamental fish (MOF), which is an industry with a wide range of environmental and social impacts worldwide. This study analyses Brazilian MOF legislation as a tool for conservation. Brazil's legal framework includes participation in international agreements, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as administrative measures that regulate the capture of certain species in Brazil. However, compared with the laws that pertain to terrestrial fauna, Brazil's MOF legislation remains limited and possibly lacks the necessary technical and scientific foundation. There is a trend to prohibit the capture of organisms according to the criterion of “rarity”. The legislation also includes the use of “positive lists”, which identify which species may be caught and establish maximum individual capture and trade quotas. Nevertheless, the criteria used to determine the quotas are not established a priori and apparently defined without scientific rigour. In this context, it is impossible to affirm that Brazilian MOF legislation fulfils its function as an instrument for the conservation of MOF stocks.